At present, there are a great variety of household and commercial appliances available for making beverages such as tea or coffee. However, in a majority of homes and commercial establishments there are a vast number of various consumer preferences that must be taken into account. Beverage consumers will have different predilections for not only types of beverages such as coffee or tea, but also for such things as beverage strength. It is well known in the brewing art that the brewing of different types and qualities of hot beverages requires different brewing conditions. Different beverages and varying qualities of beverages require such things as different brewing water volumes and flow rates, brewing times, and temperatures. For instance, the brewing of tea, such that a refined and pleasant beverage is produced, is often accomplished by steeping the tea in hot water for a set amount of time. Different types and forms of tea often require specific water temperatures and contact time of the water with the tea leaves. The same principles generally hold true with other beverages such as coffee where bean type, roasting, and grinding all may influence what brewing conditions are used.
In addition, the fast paced lifestyle in most urban areas, and the rapid expansion of establishments preparing hot beverages as their primary business has created a need to accommodate a variety of tastes over a short period of time. Contemporary appliances cannot adequately fill the need since they offer the user only the limited choice of selecting a single beverage at a time with a fixed quality of brew strength. Having several single application appliances has been conventionally used to address this problem. However, this has come at the cost of valuable counter space, and limits the ability of the user to vary the quality of the beverage efficiently.